I was just wondering if anyone could help motivate me or give me tips on how to resist eating yucky. My problem is that I don't think I look too horrible, I exercise a lot and am 'okay' with what I look like and because of that I don't feel very guilty when I overeat or eat 5lbs of Peeps. I WANT to lose weight so that I am feeling really good about myself, not just satisfied.

Anyway, I tend to go overboard on the eating bad thing. Well, maybe not even eating bad...just eating TOO MUCH! Last week my work had a ton of these s'more cookie bars just lying around. I tasted a little piece of one and was going to walk away, but I couldn't! They were the most wonderful things in the world! Anyway, needless to say I had like, 3 of them. Man...I am almost not regreting the decision; they were that good.

Also, sometimes in the evening my husband will be coming home from work and will want to pick some dinner up for us. I have a hard time saying "no" or "i'll have a salad". How do I beat the road block in my road to weightloss that is FOOD? What has worked for you all? I could exercise all day but I really fight with portion size and yumminess!

Don\'t ignore the little things because one day you will look back and realize they were BIG things!

PLAN WELL! Plan & prep ahead. Have a few days worth of lots of good choices available. For example, I'll cook a bunch of chicken at once. Keep enough in the fridge to last 4 days... and freeze the rest of the cooked chicken, to be thawed later. Is it as delicious as cooking to order? No. But I don't mind. I can always have a freshly cooked meal on ocassion, when I have more time. I even cook my oats and eggwhites in advance.

MAKE IT TASTE GOOD!!! EXPERIMENT with flavors & seasnoning, so that you enjoy your meals. Sure, sometimes you're in a hurry, and only have time to scarf down a plain piece of chicken, with plain brown rice, and plain broccoli. Or some cottage cheese with fruit yogurt. But think of it as staying fueled, and make sure that at least some of your meals are super tasty! I cut up some chicken breasts into small pieces, and sauteed it with a bunch of chilies (mild and spicy) and zucchini and onion, and tomatoe... and seasoning! It was delicious!! I could hardly wait til it was time to eat again, so I could have more.

CALORIES!!!! Make sure you're getting enough calories for you own needs. Don't compare your intake to other people's. You might need more than other people you know.

MEAL FREQUENCY: Avoid getting too hungry by eating several times per day (I eat 6 times) and making sure you aren't going too long in between meals. If you're feeding your body on a regular schedule, and you're feeding it adequately, you never have a chance to get truly hungry. Not to say you won't sometimes feel kinda hungry... or that something won't be so delicious that you want more. But by keeping a regular eating schedule... especially by doing so consistently, over a period of time, you'll start to notice that you feel pretty satisfied, most of the time... and its much easier to avoid tempation.

BALANCE: Make sure you're getting a nice balance of carbs/proteins/fats and a good variety of nutrients. (I don't include fats in my post-workout meal). Fats, while very necessary for many functions, slow down the conversion of carbs-to-glycogen (needed for muscle recovery). The more quickly my muscles recover, the stronger I get... and eventually, the more calories I need. woohoo!!!! So I choose to get my fats in the rest of my daily balanced meals.

TREATS: I think its a good idea to allow treats on a regular PLANNED schedule. Things that may be too high cal, or not quite healthy enough... or for whatever reason, foods that you may not want to allow in your diet, on a regular basis. Rather than considering it "cheating", I consider it a sensible way to incorporate some of my favs into an all around otherwise healthy plan. I usually have a splurge meal, either once-per-week or once-every-other-week. PLANNED, not randomly whenever I dang well please. It makes it easier to stay on plan when I know that treat-day is coming up. Its best to have it on the same day, such as every (or every other) Saturday. But its also nice.. if you have an upcoming party/bbq/etc to switch it, from your regularily scheduled "treat day", to the day of the event, just for that particular week. Unless of course, you're going to parties & bbq's all the time.

FAMILY: If you're cooking for your husband/whole family... try making healthier versions of their favorites so you can have them too. When we plan well, we can often dine with the family, and just have smaller servings. Of course, husbands & growing teenagers usually need more calories. And it is hard to have a small or half baked potato, with just a small dab of sour cream & cheese... while everyone else is having a huge/whole/or even two bakers, smothered in the works, right in front of you. But we usually feel so much better, when sticking to plan... and dressing our tiny potato in just a little sour cream... or with even lighter alternatives (salsa?). If a huge baker, smothered in everything, is absolutely mouth-watering to you... you can always plan to have one for one of your "planned treat days". Knowing that you can have one someday soon... and not have to go without forever... can make it easier to stay on plan. IMO.

My friend makes spaghetti sauce with very lean ground beef. She eats hers over spaghetti-squash, with a huge serving of fibrous veggies... while her husband & kids eat theirs over pasta, with garlic bread. But she cooks so healthily all the time, that they even the kids, now, want spaghetti-squash & extra veggies too. Does she ever drool at the sight of everyone eating pasta & garlic bread? Sometimes, yes, but not usually. She knows she can have it another time, for a treat, without hindering her progress. And who knows? Often, by the time "treat day" rolls around, she's forgotten all about pasta & garlic bread, and would rather have a cheeseburger or cheesecake.

Hope some of these things might be helpful to you. They have been for me. Best wishes!

Thank you, yet again, for your reply. I was beginning to think I asked the "unanswerable" question. Know what stinks? Is that everything you said is something I already know! But, it was so nice to hear it all again, (in such a nice, organized fashion). That in itself motivated me. So...thank you!
I honestly think I am not eating enough calories. I also eat 6 times a day, but joining this site has freaked me out into thinking I should be eating 1200 calories. I have been trying to keep it just under 1500. My mid morning snack is the worst. An orange and some yogurt just doesn't do it for me! I think I need to get proactive on the "finding what works for me" thing. I want to be less concerned with calories and more concerned with staying satisfied while losing weight at a healthy rate.
I have found that if I eat a balanced proportion of healthy fats (olives, avocado, nuts etc) with a protien and carb for snacks and meals I am generally feeling well. The problem is that I am very numerical/rhythem based type and when I see the high calories of the fats on my tracker...I get all worried. Maybe I should quit using the stupid thing. I don't know.
Back in the day, when my husband and I lived in Hawaii, we followed the Body For Life plan...for the most part. We had an "eat anything" day and ate a lot of recipes from Bill Phillips Eating For Life. Man! I looked hot back in the day..all tan and toned and Hawaiianed out. And I never counted calories. So...I guess I am just trying to figure out what exactly works for me.

Blah. I am certainly on my way I just wish I felt good about my chosen method. Counting calories, Zone Diet, Body for Life....they all have something to offer I suppose but I want to taylor it to ME so that it works.

Don\'t ignore the little things because one day you will look back and realize they were BIG things!

I can totally relate. I realize that I am not a calorie counter for life. It is just not realistic for me to believe that I will carry around a little notebook and write all the things I eat in it every day. For me going through my diet and tracking my calories and fat has been more important because when I stop tracking them I have amuch better idea of what I am eatting and how many calories are in things. As I become more aware of foods and what causes things to be higher in calories and fat I can avoid those things.

My snacking has gotten remarkably better through trial and error. When I have my mid-morning snack I need something more substantial. Things that work for me are apples and peanut butter, cheese and crackers.

If I just eat an apple I am starving in less then an hour but I took Shauna's suggestion and make sure I add a fat/protein to the snack and I am satisfied for hours.

Another trick I loved is adding sliced almonds to my cereal. I love cereal and I didn't want to stop having it but I would eat it and be hungry shortly there after. Again Shauna suggested adding a little fat/protein in the form of sliced almonds. Now I can eat my cereal for breakfast and not feel hungry before I even get to work.

No diet works for everyone or we would all be thin. Find what works for you and go with it.

Good luck you can do it!
Leslie

Marathon runners don't worry about the conditions, they just run anyway

Counting your calories at first will really help you to know how much you eat and eventually you will not need to count them, or at least not count as ofter. It helps to make you informed and aware.

As for how many calories you should consume in a day, it depends on a varriety of factors, how much you move in a normal day, how often you exercise, how much you exercise, how vigours the exercise is. So although this site recomends and constructs diets on a 1500 and 1200 basis that may not be exactly what works for you.

I would sugest getting your base caloric needs. I have used www.mypyramid.com, I set the activity level to less that 30 minutes per day (this is esentially giveing me my calories to do nothing). Now from this subtract around 500 to 1000 calories from this number. Consumeing this number of calories per day for one week should result in a 1 (500 calories) to 2 (1000 calories) pounds weight loss per week on average without exercise.

But when you exercise your body needs fuel. So add back in the calories you burn to your consumption of food.One of the most accurate ways to calculate this is with a heart rate monitor.